Letter to the Editor, April 27

A recent Associated Press article in the local newspaper gleefully reported that according to the federal government, U.S. consumer inflation eased in March. The reporter used gas prices, which are near and dear to us all (except our electric vehicle buds), to support the narrative.

The AP specified that “gas prices fell 4.6% just from February to March.” They added that, like flowers, gas prices usually rise in the spring.

Please salute while I raise the BS flag! Illinois and our fair city of O’Fallon must exist in some alternate universe.

My gas records indicate that on Feb. 3 of this year I paid (rounded up to eliminate the .9 cent) $3.14 per gallon for regular gas at the member’s only gas station that I frequent. On March 31 gas was $3.48 (up 34 cents or nearly 10%) there. Related not-so-fun fact: I paid $2.36 for gas when Joe Biden was inaugurated.

This morning (April 17) I drove by the two closest gas stations to my destination, noting prices at $3.70 and $3.80. I then got gas at members only for $3.65, up 35% since the day Biden took office.

Meanwhile, AAA reported the average price for regular gas across the U.S. today is $3.67.

Leave it to a Mexican writer named Luis Alberto Urrea to best sum it up. “Numbers never lie, after all: they simply tell different stories depending on the math of the tellers.”

Bill Malec, O’Fallon